Thursday, 15 April 2010

Givenchy cobra turban and bra top, part of a black velvet quilted suit, photographed by David Bailey for the November 1973 issue of Vogue UK.

As this is pretty much the most sensational outfit I can think of as it is in this photo, my mind is having trouble wrapping around the idea that it was part of a suit- a quilted velvet suit, at that. Was there a jacket and skirt? Were they both quilted? How were they cut? That tiny little phrase in the original copy has sent my mind into reveries all day as I've imagined dozens of different outfits that would follow those basic instructions. Equal to my desire to find this bronze cobra bra top and matching turban for myself, is my wish to find a photo of the original outfit to see how close Hubert de Givenchy's vision lines up with mine. The two pieces in this photo feel so unrepresentative of his style that I am interested to see how the whole outfit was designed. Has anyone out there seen the whole outfit? I'm off to do a full search through Vogue Paris for it and if I have any luck will definitely post my results here.